Elon Musk’s SpaceX agrees to $40B Apollo-managed lease for Nvidia AI chips due in 2027

Elon Musk's SpaceX has secured a $40 billion financing lease to acquire Nvidia's next-generation AI chips, known as Vera Rubin chips. This agreement is being managed by Apollo Global Management. The AI equipment is expected to support SpaceX's expansion of computing infrastructure on Earth, including Grok AI services and cloud customers. The deals are expected to close before the end of 2026, with equipment deliveries and individual leases beginning in the first half of 2027.

The financing will come from Apollo and Goldman Sachs, with the latter acting as the sole structuring agent. Other financial institutions backing the transaction include BlackRock and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, as well as capital accounts advised by KKR. These significant commitments help establish the financing package.

SpaceX aims to deploy the largest compute infrastructure in the world, with the new Nvidia chips powering Grok for businesses and consumers, as well as serving existing and future customers renting computing capacity from SpaceX. The company believes that the financing will diversify its funding sources and cover much of the investment required for its growth plans, with some Super Intelligence infrastructure investments recovering their cost in less than a year.